For the last two months our oldest cat, Annie, has been having a lot of vomiting and diarrhea, to the point where we had separated her from our other two cats. We’d taken her to the vet several times, and tried several different courses of medication. We’d switched her to some special moist cat food, which she enjoyed very much (she liked licking the gravy), but over the last few weeks her appetite had diminished severely, and during the last month she lost 15% of her body weight. With every new medication that failed to make an impact on the problem, it was becoming more likely that she had cancer.

This morning, she was having spasms on the right side of her body, and was unable to control her right front paw. We took her into the vet, and we made the decision to put her to sleep. We were with her the whole time, and it was a very gentle process. At my request, the vet did an autopsy, and confirmed that Annie had advanced lymphoma, and that her intestines had been badly effected. The vet said that the lymph nodes in her intestines were the largest that she had ever seen. Annie had probably been in a lot of discomfort, if not outright pain, for a long time.

While Annie was only 14, she had a very happy life, and we loved her very much. She was usually a somewhat reserved cat, but during the last month, which must have been extremely difficult for her, she showed us a great deal of affection. She wanted to sit in our laps more, and enjoyed snuggling against us and being petted. While we were in the vet’s office this morning making the very hard decision to put her to sleep, she was sitting on my husband’s lap, but then shifted until she was stretched across both of our laps. The vet gave her a simple overdose of sedative, so Annie slipped away very peacefully. We then stayed with her for another half hour, stroking her fur and saying our goodbyes.

We miss Annie so much right now, but we’re both grateful that we were able to give her a gentle, dignified death, and that we were able to spend fourteen years with our little gray girl.